GROUP TEST STEREO SPEAKERS
Spendor A6 SIZE IS NO guarantee of
performance. We understand that,
having decided on floorstanders,
you might prefer something a little
1300,00 more purposefullooking than these
compact numbers.
Peer a little closer, though. The
Rousing A6s beautifully constructed and
musicality on all entirely bespoke from the drivers to
levels; attractive the cabinet reinforcement. Then sit
in a squat kind of down and listen, and wonder if you
way; unfussy don’t perhaps have the need for
about room small but perfectly formed
positioning floorstanders.
Take the work the Spendors do with
Brakes’ bug-eyed Eternal Return,
Easily overlooked for instance. If it’s dexterity and
when browsing attack you value, the A6s have it in
spades. The same goes for tonal
neutrality and transparency, for
Outstanding lowfrequency drive and poise, and
speakers without
any obvious flaws. ''These Spendors have
In fact, they don’t what in America might be
have any obscure called an all-court game''
flaws either.
These Spendors for sheer mid-range articulation.
are true must- Indiepop dynamics pose no
hear hi-fi problems, and the fleet-footed
exuberance of the song is delivered
in one piece. There’s frankly
unlikely extension and punch where
the bottom end is concerned, and
TEST There are three really fantastic
RESULT
sounding speakers here, and the
Spendors just manage to take it
with their style and all-round ability
THE REALLY SATISFYING thing
about this Group Test is illustrating just partnering electronics and b) we think
the sort of on-a-sixpence entry into
and exit from individual notes that
only the Monopulses can rival.
Traditional values are still there
This isn’t to say Spendor has binned
its traditional virtues of refinement
and composure in pursuit of dynamic
attack. Far from it. Warren Zevon’s
high-gloss The Hula Hula Boys is
delivered with its sneering, wise-
afterthe-event vocal intact, even as the
music is buffed to a shine and the
details dished explicitly. When the
going gets minimal, the A6s offer
atmosphere to match any rival and
can switch to full orchestral overload
in an instant if so required. They have
what in America might be called an
‘all-court game’.
Shortcomings are few. Like any
virtuoso, the A6s are relatively picky
about partnering equipment - any
flaws in your sources or amplification
won’t be mercilessly pounced on, but
observations will definitely be made.
Other than that, it’s all gravy - they’re
not even all that precious about
positioning relative to a back wall. If
you’re in the market for speakers at
this sort of money, you owe it to
yourself to hear the Spendor A6s. GROUP TEST WINNER
how good the majority of products of being short is preferable to being ugly.
this type, at this price, are. You’ll know Only the Dynaudios surprisingly
by now that we’ve given the nod to the find themselves in the ‘average’
Spendor A6s. Ultimately we’ve decided category, in fact - and that’s much
to go with the Spendors because a) more a testament to the strength of the
they’re a little more forgiving of ropey opposition than it is a condemnation of
source material and less-accomplished their abilities.
Audition and enjoy.
July 2009
Future Classic...
The Spendor A6 Loudspeaker by Roy Gregory

One of the most enjoyable and
engaging speakers to come our way
last year was Spendor’s diminutive
SAI, a speaker that could and
should finally banish the LS3/5a to
the annals of history. But as
wonderfully musical and lucid as
the SAI assuredly is, there’s no
escaping the limitations imposed by
its tiny cabinet. Well, for those who
fancy that unobstructed mid-band
clarity and musical coherence, but
allied to the greater weight, scale
and authority that comes with
increased bandwidth, Spendor offer
the new A5 and A6 compact
floorstanders. The new models
replace the existing, well-regarded
S series equivalents, bringing with
them cleaner, sharper and more
modern styling. But the changes
here are far more than just skin
deep. Both designs have been
deliberately engineered to pass the
signal as easily as possible, with
minimum disturbance to the sense
of musical flow.
The A6 is the larger of the two
speakers, a straight two-way as
opposed to the A5’s two and a half
way (based on smaller bass and
bass/mid drivers), standing a
moderate 875mm tall and only
l92mm wide. The rectangular
cabinet is simple yet elegantly
proportioned, and beautifully
finished in a choice of four real tree
veneers. The carcass is constructed
from l8mm MDF throughout, with
critically placed circumferential
braces to create a rigid structure
without adding mass. Indeed,
despite its rigid structure, the A6
only weighs l8kg — far lighter than
you expect when you go to pick one
up. The tweeter is the familiar
Spendor version of the 29mm SEAS
ring-radiator design, its faceplate
enhanced by a sophisticated need for a terminal panel and the
elliptical wave-guide. weakness it would introduce into
The bass/mid unit uses an ep38 the cabinet.
plastic cone built into a l70mm die- The base of the speaker (and its
cast chassis, which operates up to a port) is formed by a separate slab,
high 4kHz cross-over point. The securely bolted to the bottom edges
drivers are carefully pair-matched of the front and side panels. The
for consistency. wide mouth is devoid of wool or
Which brings us to the any other damping, as is the inside
crossover itself, a key component in of the cabinet itself, inline with
the speaker’s desien and thinking. the policy of minimizing
The S6 was never a particularly energy storage within
awkward load, but the speaker system
Spendor were and projecting
determined to improve musical energy into
matters still further, off- the room. A firm
setting theA6 ’slowish footing is also
86dB sensitivity by essential in this
combining it with a flat, regard, and here the
8 Ohm impedance A6’s solution is
characteristic. The both unusual and
network itself uses extrernely
hybrid second/third effective. Four,
order slopes and is 40mm diameter
engineered to offer and 5mm thick
minimal phase shift and discs are firmly
good impulse response screwed to the
as well as a smooth corners of the
frequency balance. speaker’s base.
Overall phase The outer edges
coherence is a key of these are
aspect of Spendor drilled and
designs, and the tapped to
crossover is a critical receive 8mm
contributor to this spikes, offering
goal. But it’s not just both the widest
the design but the possible
execution that’s footprint
impressive. The without resorting to
circuit board is mounted into a outriggers, and an incredibly solid
substantial MDF tray that is inserted anchor for the spikes, against which
into the base of the speaker, forming the locking nuts can really be
the upper face of the rear mounted tightened home. The steel threads
slot port that exits at the foot of the run very smoothly too, making it
cabinet. This both braces the really easy to adjust the speaker for
components and provides a firm a solid footing and perfect level. It’s
mounting for the single pair of a far cry from the countersunk brass
WBT binding posts, removing the or alloy ferrules used by the
competition and contributes to the
A6’s incredible stability and solid
placement, despite its intentionally
lightweight construction. This
speaker is noticeably more rigidly
coupled than nearly all others — so
much so that you have to conclude
that this factor contributes seriously
to the superb sonic results.
Ooops — that rather let the cat
out of the bag! Well, no use hiding it
now; Spendor have got another
special speaker on their hands.
Crucially, what the A6
shares with the much
smaller
SA1, the
quality that so impressed and
engaged in the little standmount, is
the unobstructive, free-flowing
nature of its musical delivery.
Both these designs really allow
the music to breathe, giving both
dynamics and phrases proper shape
and expressive weight. Of course,
on the subject of weight, the
incredibly lucid clarity that comes
with the SA1’s limited bandwidth
can’t be matched by the larger A6
with it’s deeper bass, but it’s more
than compensated for by the extra
scale and more balanced
presentation. With the SA1, as
marvelous as it is, you can’t ever
forget the missing bottom octave,
but the A6 does just enough to
underpin the music in a more
convincing fashion, removing the
system even further from the
experience.
Having lived with both these
designs for quite some time, I feel
that they represent a step change in
quality over their predecessors.
In much the same way as the
Avalon Isis, NP2.0
and Indra, or
Focal’s new
Utopia series
constitute a major
advance for their
respective
producers, so too do
these latest Spendor
designs. What’s
more, all these
speakers share two
crucial features:
remarkable top to
bottom coherence,
reflected not in the
flatness of their
frequency response, but
in the evenness with
which they deliver
musical energy across
their bandwidth, and partly
as a result, significantly
improved naturalness — what
might once have been termed
neutrality before that term became
so debased and contorted as to be
almost meaningless. In this case,
“musically natural” extends beyond
tonality and harmonie balance (both
of which are important) but into the
arrival time, shape and duration of
each note. It’s what makes the
NP2.0s association with its far more
expensive brothers more than
merely fanciful. It’s what makes the
A6 a very, very special speaker
indeed.
How does it achieve this elusive
goal? What’s more, how does it do
it from such a compact and
affordable design? There are a
number of contributing factors, and
as always it’s a case of balancing
the whole equation, but there are
Living with the A6...
As well as the ease of maneuvering
and getting the A6 perfectly
vertical, the carefully engineered
balance and beautifully executed
rear port allow a remarkable
range of platement possibilities,
the speakers being surprisingly
happy even quite close to the rear
wall, seriously reinforcing their
small room potential. Even the
grilles have been carefully shaped
to prevent constant spacing
between the tweeter and their
inner edge, an elliptical top to the
cutaway passing unusually close
to the dome to achieve superior
performance. Even the grille
structure bas been cut back to save
weight and reduce stored energy.
Nothing bas been left to chance or
taken for granted. If advances in
sound quality are the result of
accumulated incremental
development (well — it worked for
British Cycling!) then the A6 is
certain proof of that particular
pudding.
certain features that stand out. Let’s
start with the bass/mid unit.
Designed and built in-house by
Spendor, they are not only
engineered specifically for this
purpose, but the company’s
extensive experience with the
materials and technology involved
allow them to produce the drivers
with remarkable consistency, before
further pair matching occurs. Nor is
this merely anecdotal, as a
destructive interlude with an SA1
bass unit recently proved. The
repaired speaker fitted absolutely
seamlessly back alongside its
surviving twin, prolonged listening
with mono material underlining just
how consistent the performance of
Spendor’s drive units really is. Add
in the low-loss/low-storage strategy
and you have a speaker that belies
its (extremely) modest sensitivity
rating. The A6 might measure at
86dB, but it doesn’t sound that way
— at all. A string of visitors,
hearing the speaker driven by the 40
or so valve Watts of the VAS
CitationSound2 monos and asked
to guess their efficiency regularly
placed it above 90dB, fooled by the
quickness and unimpeded agility of
the sound, the crisp, sudden
dynamics and easy, unforced
immediacy.
A second factor is the speaker’s
natural tonality. First acquaintance
might lead you to judge them as
warm or rounded, but you’d be
wrong, misled by their remarkable
lack of edge or glare. It’s
undoubtedly down in part to the
superior behavior of the drivers, but
also reflects the ease with which the
speaker is driven — and the
subsequent lack of strain on the
amplifier. Then there’s the careful
placement of the only mechanical
damping in the design, a
constrained layer between each
driver and the baffle, helping to
eliminate intermodulation
distortion and the smearing it
produces. The sound of the A6 is
so easy and integrated, the
musical picture so coherent,
that it’s easy to miss the level
of resolution and detail on
offer, simply because it’s all
where it should be — rather
than sticking out like a sore
thumb, disturbing the
temporal and musical
picture and drawing
attention to itself in the
process. So play the
incredibly transparent
and natural Townes
Van Zandt track
‘Waitin’ ‘Round To
Die’ (from
Heartworn
Highways) and
whilst the
Spendor can’t
match the
scale, absolute
transparency
and acoustic
space of a speaker like the
Isis or Martin Logan’s astonishing
CLX, it’s remarkable how natural
its perspective is, how easily placed
and identified the many extraneous
sounds are, from the muttered
interjections and impromptu
backing vocals emanating from the
far end of the room, to the dog
howling in the yard. What’s more,
you can tell both the what and the
why, the way TVZ’s hangover
recedes as he gets through the first
chorus and comes out the other side,
the natural timing in the interplay
between the people present. A
recording like Heartworn
Highways will show you the
soundstage limitations imposed by
the A6’s curtailed bandwidth — but
only if you go looking for them.
Likewise, largescale orchestral
works will reveal the limitations of
the compact cabinet and single bass
driver when it comes to really big
dynamic swings — but only if
you’ve heard something an
awful lot bigger
AND better (a
surprisingly
narrow field,
believe me).
Conversely, the
intimacy and
musical chemistry,
rhythmic complexity
and interplay of small
group jazz can be
absolutely breathtaking.
Like the baby Avalons,
the Spendor can undo
much bigger and initially
more impressive
competitors by dint of its
sheer musical coherence and
direct communication. It just
sounds like music, like people,
like a band having fun — and a
world away from the disjointed
mess generated by so many
expensive speaker systems.
Given the A6’s ability to step
back behind the music and allow
the performers and performance to
speak for themselves, it should
come as no surprise to learn that it
responds magnificently to being fed
a better, and particularly a more
coherent signal. If ever a speaker
existed to justify the “foundations
first” policy of paying attention to
your cable loom and supports to
maximize the performance of
modest but well-designed
electronics, then this is it. To say
that the A6/V AS combination
punches above its weight is an
understatement of almost heroic
proportions. Deliver a clean feed
and the results are simply
staggeringly engaging and
enjoyable.
Outings with other amps proved just
as successful, although the Spendor
also proved remarkably revealing of
changes upstream, in both
electronics and set up. But when
you get it right, and they will point
you in the right direction and let
you know when you get there, these
speakers will bring real, live,
breathing music into your home —
just like hi-fi is supposed to.
Spendor’s often forgotten reputation
for engineering innovation is clearly
in safe hands, with products like the
SAl and A6 setting exacting new
performance standards at their price
points. Easy to use, easy to drive
and easy to get the best out of, I
love the A6s.
They’re GRRRRREAT!
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Type : Two-way rear-reflex
floorstander
Drivers: 1x 29mm fabric
diaphragm ring-radiator,
1x 170mm ep38 cone
midlbass
Crossover Point: 4kHz 58Hz —
Bandwidth: 20kHz —3dB
Impedance: 8 Ohms 86dB
Sensitivity: : 192 x 875 x 280mm
Dimensions: (WxHxD] 18kg ea.
Weight: Light oak, cherry,
wenge, black ash
Finishes: veneers
Price : E 1195,00 each
Manufacturer: Benelux:
Spendor Audio Systems Dimex
Tel. (44(01323 843474 +310704042647
www.spendoraudio.com www.dimex.nl
 Inside Out
Spendor’s new A6 loudspeaker wins no prizes for looks, says Noel Keywood,
but the engineering contained within is impressive all the same...
hen Spencer Hughes
worked for BBC
W
Engineering in the 1960s,
he learned about their
requirements for a
loudspeaker suited to broadcast
monitoring. I mention this not te give
you a corporate history lesson, but
because it remains at the heart of
what Spendor loudspeakers are today.
And, if - let’s say - you are tuned into
the zippy sound of Monitor Audio
loudspeakers, which I would describe
as -er- ’contemporary’ than the more
svelte Spendor may come as a shock.
For some it’s what granddad listened
to, but that makes me an upcoming
candidate for a rocking chair!
More intriguing than this prospect is
that what my ears tell me about
Spendors can be clearly
identified in
measurement. Superficially
what grandad listened to
yesterday, this suggests
they are altogether in
keeping with today, and
well worth consideration.
The A6 is a modestly
equipped two-way
costing E 2600 no less, so
it has zo be pretty good.
Especially as Monitor
Audio loudspeakers
cannot be written off as a
current fad any more than
Spendor should be
dismissed as old
fashioned.
Regular readers will
know we use Spendor
S8e loudspeakers
(E 3000) as an in-house
benchmark standard at
Hi-FiWorld.They are
basically accurate, and
additionally possess an
uncoloured and well
damped sound that
handles speech, vocals,
and difficult instruments
like violin with relative ease.The
reason is that Spendor started out in
the l960s using well damped plastic
cones made from Bextrene and today
they continue to use plastic, a clear
polymer they call ep38.That is what
sets them apart and that is what you
are paying for with Spendor - a well
engineered product based upon
variants of this distinctive drive unit.
Switch between a lively modern metal
cone, or even a glass fibre cone and
you will clearly hear that a Spendor
sounds very different.Think clean,
uncoloured and well damped, with no
propensity to exhibit the characteristic
’crack‘ of glass fibre and Kevlar when
pushed hard, or the ’zing’ from a metal
cone. Spendor’s ep38 polymer doesn’t
’quack’ either, always a criticism of the
old plastic cones.The new A6 uses an
l80mm ep38 cone sitting in a
magnesium frame with roll rubber
surround. At its centre is a fixed phase
plug, rather than an unruly dust cap
that acts as an ad-hoc tweeter. An
increasing number of loudspeakers use
phase plugs now, which damps down
off axis treble, smoothing but also
darkening the sound a little.
Above the 6’s bass/midrange
unit sits a 29mm fabric dome tweeter
sitting in an asymmetric face plate. It
uses ferrofluid cooling.These drive
units sit in a moderately sized cabinet
that stands 875mm tall, is l92mm wide
and 280mm deep. A rear port
exhausts at floor level.The A6 has
sturdy single wire inputs; it cannot be
bi-wired so the use of good quality
cable is important.Weighing 18kgs
apiece the A6s aren’t so heavy as to
be awkward to move. I found the
artificial veneer used a bit
disappointing at the price. Ours
looked a little prosaic quite frankly,
especially against the standard of finish
achieved nowadays by Monitor Audio,
who lead the field in this respect.
SOUND QUALITY
Cabinet height of the A6 puts the
tweeter at or below ear level and this
gives slightly divorced treble, my initial
checks showed. So I ran ours tilted
back by screwing the rear spikes right
in and the fronts out.This knits in
treble and makes for an intense and
cohesive delivery, because there are
no suckouts to remove information.
Much like our S8e, the A6 has a
superbly clear midband that lacks
artifice and this was very apparent
with Eleanor McEvoy singing ’Did l
HurtYou‘, from her album ’Yola‘.The 6 very well suited to the A6s I found.
lacks the edge and zing of other
loudspeakers and so Eleanor McEvoy’s SOUND QUALITY
voice seemingly arose from a darker Spendor’s new A6 floorstanders are
background, unaccompanied by expensive, but conspicuously different
subliminal addition or added from the herd- Theirs is a welL
illumination. l know when some hear considered. well balanced approach
the S8es they find them dull or warm born from the need to have a truthful
sounding, but quite frankly they are studio monitor able to give an honest
not, as measurement confirms.With picture of what is being broadcast -
the A6 Spendor have lifted lower not a jazzed up version of it for
treble a little, giving a bright-ish edge headbangers.This makes the A6 quite
to cymbals in the Zuton’s ’Valerie’, for exceptional in some respects; don’t be
example, and giving percussion in Phil fooled by the prosaic looks. Here’s a
Collins’‘You Can’t Hurry Love’ a budget monitor loudspeaker in many
strong, well etched presence from respects, especially good with classical
200gm vinyl. instruments and wonderful with vocals
Placing our Ortofon 2M Black of all sorts.
onto a disc produced the usual strong
click and it was followed by a small
boof from within the Spendor’s
cabinet. Our long term decay
Although the A6 isn’t bass heavy as
measurement suggested, it is
Even and uncoloured
spectrum does show a few overhangs seemingly lightly damped and quite monitor sound for those
responsible for this, but it also shows enthusiastic at low frequencies, making who want the truth
the Spendor A6 basslmidrange unit to bass lines lively and obvious. It came
have less colour than most. I didn’t over as fulsome, much like our S8es
notice box boof in use, but then all and this could well be attributable to FOR
box loudspeakers have box return in the cabinet being hot around 70Hz. - neutral midband
their sound, something you realise This I suspect adds some extra energy - braad tonal palette
when transferring back to them from to lows, giving the A6 quite resonant - rich, intense delivery
an open panel. It’s something we get sounding bass.This gives bass lines an
used to and accommodate.The well energetic presence and drum strikes AGAINST
damped, even warm and enveloping in Dadawa’s ‘Canton Story’ resounded - mediocre finish
sound of a Spendor loudspeaker is around the room, as did kettle drum - no bi-wire
apparent with the A6 though and it in Holst’s ’The Planets’.The A6 has - resonant bass
isn’t artifice; this like other Spendors lively bass held in good proportion,
has a truly pure midband. but it is very
This was made evident by the Spendor-ish.
unusually sonorous blare of horns in Our S8es
Tchaikovsky‘ s March Slave, which work best
sounded deliciously brassy.Violins with well
were, by way of contrast, woody and damped
their strings free from glare.Well, this amplifiers as a
should be the case you might think, result and so
but the A6s do make clear that with did the A6s.
so many loudspeakers differences are Icon Audio
diminished by a patina of cone colour MB845s with
that washes over everything, especially feedback on
when we are dealing with metal were fine,
cones. So the A6 eked out and made exercising as
obvious textural contrasts in a much control
satisfying manner that expanded the as our Anatek
tonal palette of classical instruments. In A50R solid-
this sense, and with their absence of stater, but EAR
edginess, they did suit classical music Yoshino’s
well. However, the A6s are tuned to superb 890
sound a little more modern than tube power
traditional Spendors and the tweeter amplifier was
was sufficiently obvious in what it did even more
to make this speaker sound quite fast. grippy and

review MARCH 2009